When Did New One Pound Coin Come Out

So there I was, last Tuesday, fumbling for change at the local coffee shop. My fingers found a coin that felt wrong—too thick, too shiny, with a weird beveled edge. I pulled it out, squinted at it, and thought, “When did this guy show up?” The barista just shrugged and said, “It’s the new pound, mate. Been around for ages, apparently.” I felt ancient. Turns out, the new one-pound coin—the one that looks like a two-pound piece’s little cousin—actually launched on March 28, 2017. If you missed it, don’t worry; I did too, and I’m supposedly a “financially aware adult.”

The old round pound had been jingling in our pockets since 1983. It was simple, recognizable, and a total security nightmare. You know those fake coins you’d find in vending machines that felt like tin foil? Yeah, that was the problem. The Royal Mint estimated that one in thirty old pound coins was a counterfeit. One in thirty! That means if you had thirty quid in your pocket, statistically, one of those coins was basically a game token from a arcade. So, they decided to drop the hammer.

A Coin That Thinks It’s a Transformer

The new coin is a 12-sided marvel—a dodecagon, if you want to sound smart at parties. It’s bimetallic, with a gold-colored outer ring and a silver-colored inner core. The Royal Mint designed it to be “the most secure coin in the world.” Seriously, it has a hologram-like image that changes from a “£” symbol to a “1” when you tilt it. I tried it while waiting for my bus, and I swear I felt a little bit like a spy. “Is this coin real, or am I being tracked?” (Probably not, but let me have my moment.)

Why March 28, 2017, specifically? Because the old round pound was getting laughably easy to fake. Counterfeiters were using cheap alloys that looked passable under bad streetlights. So the Mint gave us this fancy polygon friend that’s supposed to be machine-readable, hard to replicate, and oddly satisfying to stack. You can build a little coin tower with them, by the way. I have no idea why this is satisfying, but try it. You’ll thank me later.

The Great Purge of 2017

When the new coin debuted, the old one didn’t just vanish—it got a six-month death sentence. For half a year, both coins were legal tender, meaning you could still pay with the old ones while the new ones slowly took over. Then, on October 15, 2017, they pulled the plug. If you had a round pound after that date? Tough luck. You had to take it to a bank and basically beg them to swap it for a shiny new dodecagon. I found five old ones in a coat pocket in 2019. I still think about those lost pounds sometimes. They’re probably in the sunken city of Atlantis now, funding mermaid vending machines.

The public reaction was… mixed, to say the least. Some people loved the new coin’s heft and security features. Others complained that it was too thick for their wallets, or that the corners pinched their fingers. I heard one guy at the pub say, “It’s like carrying a tiny stop sign around.” Fair point, sir. Fair point. But honestly, the best part was the drama surrounding the design. The coin features a rose, a leek, a thistle, and a shamrock—representing England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It’s like a botanical United Nations in your pocket. Londoners mostly ignored it, but my Welsh friend got very emotional about the leek being “so prominently shown.” National pride, you guys. It’s weird and wonderful.

Did It Actually Solve the Problem?

Yes, surprisingly. Counterfeiting of the new coin dropped to almost zero within the first year. The Royal Mint’s fancy hologram and 12-sided shape meant that cheap fakes were instantly spotted. Vending machines also had a field day—they could finally tell the difference between a £1 coin and a thin washer someone painted gold. But here’s the ironic twist: you know who hated the new coin? Vending machine owners. They had to retrofit millions of machines to accept the dodecagon shape. That cost businesses millions of pounds. So, really, the coin was a win for security and a loss for change machines everywhere. “Progress,” as they say, “is just a fancy word for spending money on new slots.”

And what about the old coins? The Royal Mint melted down over 1.5 billion of them. That’s enough metal to build a small bridge. Some ended up in jewelry, some in art projects, and, presumably, some in my grandma’s biscuit tin where they still live, thinking it’s 1995. The new coin is now as common as air, and I barely think about it until I accidentally drop it in a parking meter. But now, when I see a round pound in a charity shop jar, I get a little nostalgic. It’s like running into an ex—you remember the good times, but you’re glad the relationship ended.

So, When Exactly Did It Come Out Again?

Just to hammer it home: March 28, 2017. Mark it in your calendar if you’re a coin nerd. Or don’t—it’s already eight years old now, and you probably don’t even remember what you had for breakfast last Tuesday. But next time you’re paying with a shiny 12-sided friend, give it a little wink. It’s not just currency—it’s a tiny, polygon-shaped monument to the war against counterfeiters. And also a reminder that the old round ones are now officially antique. Your move, two-pound coin. You’re next.

(P.S. If you find an old round pound under your couch today, don’t panic. You can still exchange it at most banks in the UK, but act fast. They might phase that out too, and then we’ll all be carrying contactless payments and nothing else. The horror—a pocket with no jingling sound!)